Hemant Mehta's Blog, page 1854

Crucifix Stolen From Church of Saint Anthony, Named After the Patron Saint of Lost or Stolen Items

This past Wednesday, a church in the Bronx was the scene of a peculiar theft. A five-foot crucifix, worth $5,000, was

That a thief or thieves would come in while services were ongoing in the adjacent room in order to steal a life-sized crucifix is bizarre enough. Where the story gets really interesting is when you consider that the church’s namesake, Saint Anthony, is the patron saint of lost and — you guessed it — stolen items.

Catholics invoke St. Anthony’s help in locating lost or stolen items on the basis of an incident in which a book of psalms was returned to Anthony by a disgruntled student who had taken it after rejecting life in the Franciscan Order, according to the St. Anthony Shrine website.

As the story goes, Anthony’s prayers moved the thieving student to return his pilfered book. Prayers to Saint Anthony are believed to aid in the return of stolen and misplaced items in similar fashion.

The church has wisely opted, however, not to wait on Saint Anthony’s intervention and is instead relying on the assistance of law enforcement. ABC 7 reports that the “New York City Police Department is considering the theft grand larceny,” and advises anyone with information to call the crime stoppers hotline.

U.S. Court OKs Gay-Hating Pastor Scott Lively Getting Sued For Crimes Against Humanity… but Don’t Rejoice Just Yet

Scott Lively is not your average Christian homophobe. Most anti-gay Christians stop short of calling for the annihilation of gay people; and the occasional unhinged pastor, such as Steven Anderson, who wants the death penalty for homosexuals, has no serious political clout and no way of pushing the government into enacting such legislation.

But Lively had just such a chance when, in 2009, he became involved in Uganda’s infamous Kill the Gays bill. Fortunately, that shocking legislation was first toned down to become the “Just Put Gay People in Jail for Life” bill, as our own Hännah Ettinger remarked archly, and was then defeated on a technicality back in August of this year.

That doesn’t change the allegations that Lively, in the flesh, consulted with rabidly anti-gay Ugandan legislators, and in general fanned the flames of extreme anti-gay hysteria in that country, with fatal results for some.

Wrote eye-witness Kapya Kaoma in the L.A. Times:

Some of [Lively's] assertions [in Uganda] would have been laughable had he not been so deadly serious. He claimed that a gay clique that included Adolf Hitler was behind the Holocaust, and he insinuated that gay people fueled the Rwandan genocide. … [I]n Uganda, he was presented — and accepted — as a leading international authority. The public persecution of LGBTQ people escalated after Lively’s conference, with one local newspaper publishing the pictures and addresses of [gay] activists under the headline, “Hang Them.”

In 2012, the group Sexual Minorities of Uganda, via a sympathetic organization in the U.S., filed suit against Lively, contending that the pastor’s virtual fingerprints were all over the Kill the Gays bill. Lively says he never personally conspired with religious or political leaders to persecute gay citizens, and asked the court system to invalidate the suit.

Now, via Death and Taxes, we learn that that he’ll have to stand trial after all.

The First Circuit Court of Appeals has denied Pastor Scott Lively’s petition to have a crimes against humanity lawsuit against him dropped.

The anti-gay pastor will stand trial in a federal court in Massachusetts for his part in crafting Uganda’s notorious Anti-Homosexuality Act, popularly known as the “Kill the Gays” bill. The bill was largely the product of a workshop held in Uganda by Lively and two other american anti-gay activists, focused on “how to make gay people straight, how gay men often sodomized teenage boys and how ‘the gay movement is an evil institution’ whose goal is ‘to defeat the marriage-based society and replace it with a culture of sexual promiscuity.”

As much as I’ll enjoy seeing Lively squirm in court, Jonathan Rauch makes a worthwhile point in the Washington Post:

Lawsuits are a lousy instrument for dealing with this problem. If Lively wins, he’s a right-wing hero; if he loses, he’s a martyr. Either way, this case has potential to spread his fame far and wide and inspire imitators. He might succeed in commandeering the Supreme Court as his stage. All pretty enticing for a nut case from the fever swamps.

But what’s the alternative? Ignore him? Let bygones be bygones? Pretend the incitement didn’t happen?

I don’t think Rauch’s suggestion, below, will work, and I don’t think he believes so either. Christian leaders, he says,

… should treat Lively the way white blood cells treat a bacillus, walling him off before he discredits evangelicals more broadly — as surely he will.

But to my knowledge, not a single prominent U.S. Christian leader has spoken up. Not one. Think about that.

I wonder: if it were Jews instead of gays that Lively were going after, would the silence from mainstream Christians be more obvious?

Perhaps the silence and the shrugs from prominent evangelicals speak volumes about whether they truly believe in the love-thy-neighbor principle that they say Jesus promoted.

Yes, like Rauch, I’d rather see them speak out against the worst of the homophobes in their midsts. But as long as they don’t, the golden lining is that they keep company with genocidally inclined sociopaths, exposing themselves for all to see as Christian fellow travelers with a remarkable tolerance for malignant zealotry.

(via Progressive Secular Humanist)

The Illinois State Capitol Rotunda is Now Home to a Very Optimistic Atheist Display

Late last week, the Springfield Area Freethinkers put up the following sign in the Illinois State Capitol rotunda:

This Winter Solstice, as blue-robed Earth tilts her face to the kiss of the waking sun, let us gather to tend the fire at Reason’s hearth, whose beacon shines for all the world. There may every one of us light a torch of truth and find our way to wisdom.

With unfearing good will, we wish all people to share in the joyous gifts that await the children of the Enlightenment: freedom, peace, and endless love of understanding. Let hearts be lightened and dreams be dared in the brightening days that light the growth of this newborn year.

I love it Let’s see Christians get upset about that one…

The display will be up through January 5.

(Thanks to Galen for the images!)

Please Support the Work I Do Through This Site

I’ve posted this in the past. If you’ve already responded, there’s no need to do it again. Thanks!

…

Over the past couple of years, what began as a personal blog has turned into a hub with several contributors and multiple posts per day. As always, I’d like to continue expanding the reach of this site. That entails bringing on additional contributors with different voices, including more guest posts from people who can offer interesting and different perspectives, creating more YouTube videos, and making the podcasts sound more professional.

In order to facilitate all of this, I’ve created a page at Patreon.

If you’d like to help out, you can pledge a certain amount every month (with rewards along the way!) from $1 to $100.

As always, I’m grateful for the kind words and support you all send my way. I don’t usually post about them, but trust me: they never go unnoticed. Many of you have emailed me asking if there’s any way to donate to this page, and I always say no, but I think Patreon offers a really incredible approach to reach out to more people in different ways. Thanks in advance for your help.

And for those who prefer to make a one-time donation only, since Patreon doesn’t allow those right now, you can always give via PayPal:

Thank you!

Christian Convert with Anti-Muslim History Runs Down Muslim Teen Outside Mosque

Fifteen year old Abdisamad Sheikh-Hussein was leaving the Somali Center of Kansas City to head home after prayers on Thursday evening when a SUV struck him. The Chevy Blazer severed Sheikh-Hussein’s legs before the driver fled the scene. The teen was transported to a local hospital, where he died not too long after from his injuries and blood loss.

But Sheikh-Hussein’s death was no accident, no panicked hit-and-run. The driver who swerved into him was Ahmed H. Aden (below), a former Muslim and convert to Christianity with a history of conflict with the Muslim/Somali community. Aden acknowledged that he deliberately swerved into the teen, but says that Sheikh-Hussein was not his intended victim.

Kansas City Star reports that Aden

… told police after his arrest that he had been searching for men who’d threatened him nine days earlier. And he said he planned to kill those men if he found them, according to court records.

Aden told police that he intentionally struck Abdisamad, but he had mistaken the teen for one of the men who had threatened him.

According to reports, Aden had previously antagonized members of the mosque.

Others in the community said they recognize the SUV as the one once covered in anti-Quaran graffiti, driven by a man who has since been banned from Somali markets and restaurants for his rant.

They showed KCTV5 a photo they took two months ago. The writing on the back window read, “Quran is a virus disease woreste [sic] than Ebola.”

Aden has been charged with “first-degree murder, armed criminal action, leaving the scene of an accident and unlawful use of a weapon.” The FBI is also looking into hate-crime charges.

Abdisamad Sheik-Hussein’s funeral was on Saturday, and Fox 4 KC reports that thousands of mourners attended. I hope the community’s strong show of support helps bring peace to the bereaved family during this terrible and tragic time.

Pastor Tells Gay Christian: “I Pray That You Will Commit Suicide”

Jim Marjoram just wrote a book (It’s Life Jim) about his life as a gay Christian, and he decided to promote it (and his new ministry to help LGBT Christians) by sending an email to several church leaders in his local Auckland, New Zealand.

For the most part, pastors didn’t respond to him. But Westcity Bible Baptist Church Pastor Logan Robertson offered Jim a suggestion:

We are not interested in your filthy lifestyle or book.

Romans 1 clearly says God has rejected homos and they are worthy of death. You can not be saved.

…

The bible says you are vile, strange (queer), reprobate, filth, sodomite, natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed…

I pray that you will commit suicide, you filthy child molesting fag.

Pastor Logan Robertson

Responding to a local newspaper, Robertson said he didn’t regret his comments.

Jim is taking this in stride, knowing that he’s not the first to hear a message like this, even if it wasn’t as explicit:

Marjoram said he had battled with depression and suicidal thoughts throughout his life so the comment stung.

“On so many occasions I’d want to jump in front of a truck but my kids kept me going,” he said.

The response has been overwhelmingly against the pastor, which is great, but the whole episode serves as a reminder that uncritical belief in a holy book can make you believe genuinely despicable things. Not that you needed more proof of that.

(Thanks to Sam for the link)

Pastor Who Said Killing Gay People Would Solve the AIDS Crisis Faced Protesters Outside His Church This Weekend

Last week, Pastor Steven Anderson made some nasty remarks that, unlike most of the other horrible things he’s said, actually made its way to a wider audience:

… If you executed the homos like God recommends, you wouldn’t have all this AIDS running rampant.

Over the weekend, there was actually a protest in front of his Tempe, Arizona church. I’m not sure it accomplished much, but it’s always nice to see people (including other Christians) denounce faith-based hate speech.

“He is not the voice of Arizona,” said Samantha Pstross, chair of the D-26 Democrats, a political organization that helped organize the demonstration. “We’re here to stand up and say this is wrong. Love wins. Love is greater than hate.”

Standing in the shade outside the front door of his church, Anderson ate yogurt and watched the demonstrators with members of his congregation.

“A lot of businesses pay to have sign-wavers. I’m just glad people know we’re here,” Anderson said. “I’m not ashamed of what I believe, I’ll preach it from the house tops. And anybody who wants to read it can go to the Dollar Tree and pick up a Bible.”

Anderson said to a reporter that he really wasn’t calling for the killing of gay people, but then added something stupid:

“I’m not saying people should take the law into their own hands,” he said. “I do think it should be against the law (to be gay).”

Not sure how that one would work… Does he want to punish thought-crimes? Does he want people to pay a fine if they have a same-sex attraction? (How much would that even be…?)

Actually, he’s lying about not wanting gay people killed. Because at the 51:00 mark of the video below, Anderson says that the government should kill homosexuals:

Well, the Bible actually teaches that gays should be executed… now, I’m not saying that I would ever kill anyone, because I never would, but I believe that the government should use the death penalty on murderers, rapists, homosexuals, and… that’s what the Bible teaches very clearly.

When the radio host, clearly shocked by this, brings up the government-sponsored jail sentences against gay people in Uganda, Anderson remarked, “So apparently I’m not the only person on this planet that actually believes what the Bible says,” a tacit endorsement of what they were doing there.

(via Christian Nightmares)

Atheist Displays in Arlington Heights (Illinois) Have Already Been Vandalized

Last week, the Freedom From Religion Foundation chapter in Chicago put up an atheist display at North School Park in the city of Arlington Heights. It included a five-foot-tall Scarlet A and a banner reading “Are you Good Without God? Millions are” (courtesy of the Chicago Coalition of Reason):

It’s been a week, and I just got word that the display was vandalized: The top of the banner was ripped out of its grommets and the eyehooks that kept the banner attached to its stand were missing.

In addition, the disclaimer sign (that said the displays were put up by private groups and did not represent the views of the local park district) was literally bent out of shape:

FFRF Metropolitan Chicago Chapter President Tom Cara told me that the vandalism was reported to the Arlington Heights police department.

It’s the second year in a row the displayed have been ruined. Last year, someone took a knife to the banner:

A Former Pastor Explains Living Between Belief and Unbelief

Ryan Bell is the former pastor who decided to “try on” atheism for a while when he felt a little pulled in that direction. His decision even cost him his job.

For the past several months, he’s been blogging on Patheos at A Year Without God, though his year is about to come to an end, so it’ll be interesting to see what he does after that.

In the meantime, Bell recently gave a speech at the Center For Inquiry in Los Angeles detailing his theological views and how he came to put his faith to the test. Check it out!

Alberta Politicians Battle Over Gay-Straight Alliances in Schools

Alberta is known for being Canada’s greatest hotbed of religious fundamentalism and conservative attitudes. So when some proposed legislation aimed to make high school a little safer for queer teenagers, things get a little bit messy.

The legislation in question is Bill 202, the Safe and Inclusive Schools Act. It’s a private members’ bill aimed at decreasing anti-LGBTQ bullying by requiring all schools to permit the formation of gay-straight alliances (GSAs). If the bill passes, it means school administrators won’t be allowed to stand in the way of students who wish to form a GSA.

What’s more, Bill 202 seeks to repeal the portion of the Alberta Human Rights Code that grants parents the right to be notified in advance of controversial lesson plans so they can remove their children from in-class discussions of religion, sexual orientation, or human sexuality. No other Canadian province recognizes a similar parental right.

Bill 202 was introduced by the Alberta Liberals based on concerns about the suicide rate among LGBT youth and the impact of bullying on teens’ mental health. The bill’s creator, Liberal MLA Laurie Blakeman, observed that “gay-straight peer support groups have been proven to reduce suicide in our gay youth.” In spite of widespread opposition to a similar bill earlier this year, Blakeman told the press she hoped to see the Progressive Conservative and Wildrose parties supporting her proposed legislation.

So far, it hasn’t exactly worked out that way.

The Wildrose Party proposed to amend the bill such that religious schools — including the province’s publicly-funded Catholic schools — could be exempted from the GSA requirement. General bullying-prevention programs would be required, but such schools would not have to create programs that specifically address targeted bullying against LGBT teens, nor the elevated rates of depression and suicide in sexual minority populations.

(In other words, the kinds of issues that might be exacerbated in LGBT kids who are surrounded every day by the trappings of a religion that sees them as fundamentally broken — “intrinsically disordered,” the Catholic Church would say — and in need of repentance.)

Alberta’s Progressive Conservative premier, Jim Prentice, went a step further, calling to discard Bill 202 entirely as “unfair to us and to those we represent.” (Apparently Mr. Prentice does not see himself as representing, for instance, high school students who want to participate in gay-straight alliances.)

To counter the unfairness he perceives, Prentice is proposing an alternative bill, introduced on Monday in the Alberta legislature. Bill 10 — titled “The Act to Amend the Alberta Bill of Rights To Protect Our Children” — would not require schools to permit GSAs if the students want them; elected school boards would be empowered to make the ultimate decision about GSAs. Students would have the right to seek legal recourse if their school board denied them the right to form a GSA.

In theory, Education Minister Gordon Dirks would be able to sidestep a school board policy against GSAs by permitting students to form off-campus groups even if their school board said no. It’s a controversial proposal; requiring such groups to meet away from school grounds has a segregationist savour that discomfits some LGBT-rights supporters. Perhaps even more worrying is the on-the-ground reality that Gordon Dirks is an evangelical Christian pastor in a church that encourages gays to repent of their homosexuality.

As for the Alberta Human Rights Code, Bill 10 proposes to eliminate “sexual orientation” from the list of topics about which teachers must notify parents prior to classroom discussion, and to add “sexual orientation” to the list of protected groups in the Alberta Bill of Rights. Those steps are broadly seen as acceptable across party lines. The GSA question, it appears, is the real sticking point.

Blakeman perceives Prentice’s new bill as an attempt by the Tories to sidestep debate or discussion about issues like students’ rights and diversity of beliefs in school settings. She views Prentice as pandering to conservative parents and home-schooling families who want to see their social values legally supported, at the expense of pro-LGBT students’ freedoms:

GSAs are still not guaranteed to be able to go ahead unless the student or their parent is willing to fight this all the way to the courts. So why does one group get all kinds of things enshrined for them and the other group will ultimately have to go to the courts?

Legal experts add that the appeal provisions are written in such a way as to suggest that judges should rule in favor of the school boards in most cases. Even if they manage to pull together the resources to appeal the case in court, students will have slender grounds on which to argue against administrators’ decisions.

To his credit, Prentice acknowledges that his effort to fix the “unnecessarily divisive” Bill 202 ended up creating more problems than it solved. He agreed to withdraw Bill 10 and put the entire question on hold until 2015. The PC Party plans to investigate whether mandating GSA formation is constitutional, and whether the public supports this sort of change in the rights of parents over their adolescent children’s school environment.

(Image via Shutterstock)